Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part examination of the budgeting process underway in the City of Truth or Consequences. In addition to contending with a $1.6 million deficit in the fiscal year 2021-2022 draft budget, new city manager Bruce Swingle has informed the city commissioners that they must play a lead role in identifying departmental spending priorities and cuts and devising a plan within two years to end the practice of balancing the budget with transfers from utility fees.
Commission budget deliberations began at an all-day public session on Wednesday, May 5, at which department heads presented their budget requests.
Commissioner Frances Luna typically took the lead in questioning certain expenses, while her colleagues remained largely silent. The picture of city operations that emerged over the course of the day is one of inefficiency and waste. A key factor in the city’s financial mismanagement has been the commission’s historic inattention to budget details, a habit to which Swingle had called halt early in the day.
Here follows the second set of department-by-department summaries of the budgeting and policy issues that were discussed.
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Deputy Chief Erica Baker presented her department’s budget. The Sun inquired as to why Police Chief Michael Apodaca had not given the presentation and learned he had retired about two weeks previously. His exit went unannounced at the April 28 city commission meeting.
The police department’s budget assumed a $1-per-hour raise for all officers, with the needed monies to come out of gross receipts tax revenues dedicated to the department. Whether these raises were implemented or not “would be up to the new chief,” Deputy Chief Baker said.
“The commission, not the PD, approves raises,” Commissioner Luna responded.
Commissioner Randall Aragon, who served as T or C’s chief of police from July 2018 until his dismissal by former City Manager Morris Madrid in late 2019, said evidence from the hearings preceding the 2011 vote on whether to institute the dedicated GRT promised the money would be used for “training and to attract officers to our city.” The tax was approved by voters with that understanding, Aragon said. “It can change,” he added, “but that’s how we got that money.”
Mayor Sandra Whitehead maintained the GRT could be used more broadly for public safety, but that “public safety was never defined,” and “later on, it took on different meanings.”
Whitehead suggested deferring a determination of how to spend the GRT, although all other departmental budgeting decisions would be impacted by how the commission chose to allocate those revenues.
Luna raised another thorny issue in questioning whether the city needed to return $284,000 to the police department, because dedicated GRT revenue in that amount had been used to build the animal shelter. Luna argued the monies were “legitimately used for public safety.” Stretching the point, she cited the example of a local woman who had been killed by dogs that had escaped their yard and were running loose several years ago.
Deputy Chief Baker asserted that the shelter’s construction did not qualify as a public safety enhancement and that the funds were therefore “illegally used.”
With the city commissioners unable to resolve the issue, Swingle said he would look into the prescribed uses of the police department’s GRT.
Baker continued to advocate for using GRT for raises. “We are not getting new applicants,” she reported. “The crew we have needs a raise to keep and retain them. That’s what the fund was created for. We’re just asking for $1 to keep them loyal. It’s important to look at those raises. They’ve earned it.”
Since none of the other city commissioners weighed in on the issue, Luna’s recommendation made earlier in the meeting—that all raises be removed from the overall budget—will likely stand.
Luna also questioned a $5,000 line item to cover “flooding.” Baker explained that police headquarters have flooded two times in the last two years. Appalled that yearly expenses for cleaning up flood damage were budgeted instead of a permanent fix, Luna continued to question Baker about this expenditure. Commissioner Aragon interceded on behalf of the deputy chief, advising that the building will continue to flood until a retaining wall is built.
“That’s an asset,” Luna emphasized. “We can’t just let it go. That needs to be fixed.”
Swingle recommended that the $5,000 should stay in the budget to pay for planning aimed at finding a permanent fix to the flooding problem.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
At the beginning of the all-day meeting, Swingle had announced that Fire Chief Paul Tooley would not be able to attend, but Tooley arrived, somewhat breathless, mid-afternoon. May 5 was his last day as Sierra County’s emergency services administrator.
Commissioner Luna, without preamble, immediately inquired of the chief: “What about the hangar?” She was referring to a fire substation based in the past at the municipal airport, qualifying the fire department to receive state funds to support its operation.
Tooley explained that the hanger had been taken away from the department during the administration of City Manager Juan Fuentes, Madrid’s predecessor. “We’d love to have it back,” Tooley said, even though the water supply at the airport is insufficient to fight fires.
If the substation were re-established, Tooley advised the commissioners he would use it to house a truck carrying fire suppression foam. The department might then be able to garner $30,000 in state fire funds, he said.
Tooley moved on to the next issue, warning the city commission that although he had ordered a new ladder truck two years ago, it might not be ready to receive until July. If so, the expense would be shifted into the 2021-2022 budget. The wait will have been worth it, Tooley said. The truck’s quoted purchase price of $780,000 will remain in effect, even though, in the interim, the price of that vehicle has risen to $1.2 million.
On the plus side of the ledger, the fire department has earned an excellent Insurance Services Office rating of Class 2, Tooley reported, keeping fire insurance costs low.
Because the department’s 20 members are all volunteers, the city is “getting a Class 2 fire department for $21,500 a year,” Tooley said. That figure is derived from the $10-per-call reimbursement paid to firefighters to offset expenses such as gas and clothes damage.
State fire funds pay for the balance of the department’s $1.1 million budget.
MUNICIPAL POOL
Kyle Blacklock, pool director, included in his preliminary budget a $40,000 line item to repair a pool leak, but refined the figure to $37,000 during discussion.
Seeping from the metal gutter that surrounds the pool edge, Blacklock explained, results in the pool leaking about 34,000 gallons a week. An engineer had assured him that the absorption of the excess water into the ground around the pool had not so far caused structural instability. Blacklock did not name the engineer or engineering firm.
Finance Director Carol Kirkpatrick offered a suggestion as to how to pay for the pool repair. “Do you remember we refinanced a loan—there was $1 million for pool engineering and vehicles. . . .” she said, her words trailing off. “I’ll see if I can repurpose it.”
Building a new $12 million pool as part of a new civic center had been a top priority of City Manager Swingle’s predecessor, Morris Madrid. Luna, who had publicly voiced opposition to the pool and civic center, now offered the opinion that a new pool couldn’t be contemplated for five years or so. “The $37,000 band-aid at least gets us half way to five years,” she calculated. “We can’t walk away; the older community needs this.”
While noting that the $37,000 was not in the budget, Swingle said that fixing the leak would reduce the $55,000 line items allotted to pay for continually refilling and reheating the water in the pool
MUNICIPAL AIRPORT
Airport employee Orlando Saavedra gave the budget presentation because airport manager Chad Rosacker had the day off. Rosacker’s company, Tech 45 Services, has been hired on a temporary, part-time basis to manage the airport through the end of June.
Saavedra, who said his last day would be June 6, reported that the airport needed “three full-time positions,” not including Chad Rosacker’s or the Tech 45 employees who may fill in for him.
Saavedra informed the city commission that “Chad wants to take over the airport, which would be good.”
The city commission has never approved an administrative change that would place airport management in private hands. At the April 14 commission meeting, then interim City Manager Traci Alvarez announced that an RFP for a fixed-base airport manager will go out in June, the month Tech 45’s contract expires. The commissioners did not voice any objection then or at the May 5 budget meeting, giving tacit consent to Alvarez’s decision to privatize the management of the municipal airport.
Saavedra explained that one of the airport’s current employees, a high school student, switches status from part to full time, depending on his school schedule. Luna said in response that the city must not show favoritism by framing jobs “as people, not as positions.” Instead, she instructed, the human resources department must define the parameters of city jobs, and applicants for a position must comply with those terms.
Luna questioned Saavedra about a $21,000 line item for the yearly lease of a fuel truck. Saavedra noted that the city should have purchased a fuel truck years ago, having now “paid for it several times over.” He pointed out that he had recommended the purchase of a used 1,500-gallon fuel truck, but his recommendation had not been followed. The leased fuel truck is a 1986 vehicle, and the lease agreement does not include maintenance, Saavedra said.
“This contract is a problem,” Luna concluded. “We need to renegotiate. We shouldn’t have a 35-year-old vehicle on lease. Chad is off, but this should be resolved today.”
In the absence of further information, Luna went on to the next item, questioning Saavedra why the airport pays for three separate land lines. The answer provided was that three lines are needed to call in credit card charges to three credit card companies. As Windstream is the only telecommunications company capable of servicing the airport, Windstream negotiated a $5,500 yearly credit card fee as part of its telephone service contract with the airport.
“A $5,500 credit-card fee?” Luna asked, astonished. “We have to get this fixed. I can’t believe this has happened this long.”
Swingle agreed that the line items for telecommunications in many departmental budgets were high and suggested that the city “centralize” such contracts.
“We didn’t get anything out of that budget,” Luna said, acknowledging the commission’s defeat in reining in the airport’s proposed expenses.
Part 3 of the Sun’s coverage of T or C’s budgeting deliberations will be posted on Friday.
For a long time I’ve been questioning why this airport is a T or C-funded facility and not a county facility with its location about five miles from the recognized city proper and serving a largely non-resident user base. It and its annual transfer funds to support its operation needs to be investigated. This facility is not and probably never will be an income-producing asset. Its operating costs should be spread throughout the county and not borne solely by T or C’s residents. Pie in the Sky is not likely to land in T or C.
I’m really surprised so much is going on in T or C that the commissioners don’t know anything about. It’s very disappointing. They don’t even appear to want to ask questions. It seems reports are made, Luna makes her comments, no one else has a question or comment, and the issue either goes the way Commissioner Luna wants or it’s tabled, I guess. This isn’t how our city should be run. Thank goodness for City Manager Swingle. I hope he is able to corral all this spending and these very loose approvals and get the city finances back on track. I know most residents are really worried about all this, as I’ve been, and we have high hopes for City Manager Swingle’s leadership.
This is great reporting. People would not know most of this if it were not published here. Thanks!